Unloading toy cars



March 1956 J. 1.. BONANNO UNLOADING TOY CARS 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Nov. 16, 1951 INVENTOR l/OSL-Pf/ LEONA/V4 0 flwomvn March 27, 1956 BONANNO UNLOADING TOY CARS 2 m 4 W M s /m .0 t [W A ma Mm m 4 4 W H w y Filed NOV. 16, 1951 nite UNLOADIN G TOY CARS Joseph L. Bonanno, Madison, N. 1., assignor to The Lionel Corporation, New York, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application November 16, 1951, Serial No. 256,696 8 Claims. (Cl. 105-311) The present invention relates to unloading toy cars and is more particularly directed toward unloading toy hopper cars whereby the operation of unloading the usual coal car can be simulated in the toy.

The present invention contemplates a toy hopper car provided with remotely controllable unloading mechanism by which the car may be dumped at a selected position along the track. It is particularly suitable for use with the toy railroad accessories for simulating the unloading of railroad cars forming the subject matter of my concurrently filed application Serial No. 256,695.

The body of the hopper car is preferably in the form of a plastic molding which may be made to duplicate the appearance of a standard hopper car, and the car and mechanism are arranged for easy securement together. The mechanism is biased to a closed position so that the car with load of toy coal may be run over the rails as usual and is capable of shifting, preferably in response to the energization of a track magnet to dump the load.

The accompanying drawings show, for purposes of illustrating the present invention, one embodiment in which the invention may take form, it being understood that the drawings are illustrative of the invention rather than limiting the same.

In these drawings:

Figure l is a side elevational view of a toy hopper car with parts in section, the unloading mechanism being in normal closed position;

Figure 2 is an inverted plan view of the central portion of the hopper car with parts broken away;

Figure 3 is a longitudinal sectional view on the broken line 3-3 of Figure 2;

Figure 4 is a transverse sectional view on the broken line 4-4 of Figures 2 and 3 showing the unloading mechanism in position;

Figure 4a is a fragmentary central transverse sectional view of the car body with unloading mechanism removed;

Figure 5 is a transverse sectional view on the line 55 of Figure 3 to show the chutes; and

Figure 6 is an exploded perspective view illustrating the component parts of the unloading mechanism.

The toy car has a plastic molded body 10 supported on trucks 11, 11 and adapted to roll over the toy railroad track 12, 12. The car body 10 has sides 13, 13, ends 14, only one of which is shown and downwardly sloping bottom walls 15, 15. Near the center of the car the sides extend down as indicated at 13:: and the lower portions 15a of the bottom walls are below the apparent bottom of the car so that the toy coal placed in the car will slide down the sloping bottom similar to the manner in which coal slides down the bottom of the coal hopper cars.

At the center of the car body the side walls 13, 13 are connected by transversely extending bridge 17 of inverted V-shaped cross section. This bridge provides for the shifting of the toy coal laterally from the center portion of the car and provides a space indicated by reference character 18 for the accommodation of mechanism to be described. Extending longitudinally of the car body from the central bridge 17 out to the bottom walls 15, 15 are two inverted V-shaped bridges 19, 19 which have downwardly extending walls 20, 20. These walls 20, 20 together lower with the lower portions 13a of the side walls of the car body and the bottom 15 form four obliquely downwardly extending chutes 21. These chutes have openings 22 through which the contents of the car is adapted to escape unless the chutes are closed.

The plastic body is also provided with two mounting lugs 23, 23 along the center line, and these are utilized to support the unloading mechanism which will now be described.

The component parts of the unloading mechanism are shown in Fig. 6. All parts are carried on a mounting plate 30 adapted to be secured in place by screws 31 which pass through holes 32 and enter the lugs 23. The plate 30 is notched back as indicated at 33 and provided with pairs of upstruck ears 34 pierced as indicated at 35. intermediate the cutouts 33 are central cutouts 36, 36.

The plate 30 is provided with a central aperture 37 and a guide tube 38 swaged in place. This tube receives a rod or pin 39 having a head 40 on the top and a reduced lower end 41 and is upwardly biased by a spring 42. The lower end 41 is secured to a U-shaped arm 43 and to a magnetizable armature 44.

The apertured ears 3d, 34 in the mounting plate are in the nature of hinge knuckles and receive hinge pins 45, 45 on which are secured closure members 46, 46. These are preferably made of tough molded plastic, such as nylon. They have downwardly cored lugs 47 also in the nature of hinge knuckles and which receive the hinge rods and centrally, outwardly extending brackets 48, 48 against which the outer ends 49, 49 of the U-shaped arm 43 are urged by the spring 42. The closure members are provided with openings 50 to accommodate the ends 49 of, the arm 43. The closures are held against the ends of the chutes. The extreme ends 51 of the plate 30 act as stops for the closures when the sub-assembly of the parts is completed before securement to the car.

When the parts are assembled as shown more clearly in Figure 3, it will be noted that the mounting plate 30 extends across the bottom of a space 18 under the bridging member 17 and that at the upper end of pin 39 is accommodated in this space. It will also be noted that the longitudinal bridging members 19 provide space for the elements 48 and 49 and that the mechanism is completely protected against the entrance of particles of discharged toy coal. It passes down through the chutes below this mechanism. When, however, it is desired to unload the car, it is placed along the track in such a way as to have the armature 44 directly above the core of a solenoid coil 61. When the coil is energized the armature is pulled down as indicated in dotted lines in Figure 3, and this allows the closure members 46, 46 to lower under their own weight and permit the load to flow out of the car.

While the mechanism is particularly well adapted for use with track having properly located actuating magnets for remote control, it will be obvious that mechanical instead of magnetic means may be utilized to lower the operating shaft 39.

Since it is obvious that the invention may be embodied in other forms and constructions within the scope of the claims, I wish it to be understood that the particular forms shown are but a few of these forms, and various modifications and changes being possible, I do not otherwise limit myself in any way with respect thereto.

What is claimed is:

l. A hopper car for use in toy railroad track having a fixed magnet coil between the track rails, the car hav- 3 ing'a'body provided with obliquely disposed downwardly openingdischarge chutes, a vertically reciprocable armature spring biased upwardly, two chute closing doors, and means operable by the spring and armature for moving the'doors between normally closed and open position.

2. A toy car having a hopper-like body with obliqueiy disposed downwardly opening discharge chutes spaced apart and'facing one another, chute closure members hingedly-supported from the body to swing about axes transversely of the car body from an upper closing position to a lower open position, means biasing them to the closed position against the force of gravity, and a magnetizable armature having meansfor overcoming the biasing means to allow the closure'members'to shift to open position.

3. A toy car having a hopper-likebody with obliquely disposed downwardly opening discharge chutes spaced apart and facing one another, a mounting plate secured under the body between the chutes, closure members for the chutes hingedly secured to the mounting plate and L biased downwardly by their own weight, a plunger carried by the plate and carrying arms which lift the closure members to closed position, means for biasing the plunger upwardly, and an armature carried bythe bottom of the plunger and attractable by an electromagnet to open the chutes.

4. Anattachment for a toy railroad hopper car, comprising a mounting plate adapted to' be secured to the body of the car and carrying two parallel hinge pins extending transversely of the body, a plunger carried by the plate and provided at its lower end with a magnetizable armature, means for biasing the plunger upwardly, a closure member carried by each hinge pin, and a plungercarried cross-arm bearing on each closure member to bias it upwardly when the plunger is up and movable downwardly with the plunger to allow the closure members to swing downwardly on the hinge pins.

5. *A toy hopper car having a one piece molded plastic body with side walls, end walls, a transversely extending bridge of finite length connecting the side walls at a distance above the bottom of the side walls and of inverted V-shaped section, longitudinally disposed bridges extending from the transverse bridge and having an inverted V-shaped section, and downwardly extending walls opposite the lower portion of the side walls of the car, and downwardly converging bottom walls extending from the end walls and interconnecting the side walls and the lower portions of the sides of the lougitudinalbridgesto form four downwardly sloping chutes, the lower edges of the bottom walls being below the edges of the transverse bridge and more widely spaced so as to form four chute openings, a plate secured to the bottom of the car body under the central bridge, a vertically movable plunger mounted in the plate and having its upper end extending into the space between the plate and bridge, a spring about the upper end of the plunger and biasing it upwardly, hinged closures carried'by the plate, and plunger carried devices holding the closures against'the open ends of the chutes when the plunger is up, andwhen the plunger is down freeing them so that they may lower to open the chutes.

6. A toy hopper car such as claimed in claim 5, wherein the closure biasing devices extend into the space under the longitudinal bridges.

7. An unloading mechanismtor toy hopper cars. having discharge chutes comprising a normally horizontalmounting plate having parallel spaced hingeiknuckles, acentrally disposed rod carrying below the plate upwardly and outwardly divergent arms, meansfor biasing the rod upwardly, and closure members having knuckles hingedly secured to the mounting plate knuckles and .abutments against which the said arms bear to hold the closure members up,the closure members in their upper portion extending downwardly and outwardly from the mounting plate and swinging down by gravity when released.

8. An unloading mechanism for toy hopper'carssuch as claimed in claim 7, wherein the. lower end of therod carries a magnetizable armature.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 524,580 Davidson Aug. 14, 1894 719,868 Randel 'Feb. -3, 1903 995,153 Kingsbury June 13, 1911 1,028,415 Yost June 4, 1912 2,015,197 Shallenberger Sept. 24, 1935 2,101,448 Ostrander Dec. 7, 1937 2,138,695 Duncan Nov. 29,1938 2,140,268 Moss Dec.l3, 1938 2,305,491 Petit 'Dec. 15, 1942 

